The Thought Graves

With this data lies an answer to the most pressing question. These installations are well armed and easily defended. They possess factories, armories, and living quarters. What’s strange to me is the presence of the coffins. I once believed that it could only mean one thing: perhaps their religion focuses on ancestry and warfare. They keep their soldiers close to aid them in battle.   I was wrong. I love it when I’m wrong. It's a delightful change of pace. We have never been able to open the coffins in the past, but this has changed. I’ve scoured the data. Two things stood out to me: First, each coffin features some kind of interface, implying connection to a power source. Second, each coffin is connected to an intricate network of pipes that seems solely placed for the coffins themselves.   My friend, If my theory is correct, then they were not trying to honor their dead, nor did they wish to keep the spirits of the fallen with them in battle. Within the plumbing of the complex, there exists traces of dimethyl sulfoxide, a common cryopreservative. They were refusing to let their warriors die.

Thought Graves are never so well-preserved. Most of the time we stumble on little more than rubble. Even in this case, many of the coffins had little more than dust inside them. When wayfarers entered the complex, something activated within in. One of the coffins opened and the wayfarers were attacked by the creature that slumped within it.   No one was injured. It was unarmed, and It died very soon afterwards from a gunshot wound it sustained before being preserved. The process was never meant to be reversed. They were to be suspended indefinitely, the wounds they suffered, or their health being far too taxing to live for long after their revival. Remove any of these proud warriors from their coffin, and they will die, terrified and alone.   Then we must consider the connection between them. It’s obvious they would need a power source, but each coffin is linked by seemingly redundant connections. Again, I have a theory. This took so much in the way of resources, and for what? Why go through all this trouble? Why preserve them and not just let them die?